Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAP. II.

Inquiry into the different kinds of numbering in use among the ancients-Determination of that species of computation (alluded to by the Holy Spirit) which is to be used in numbering the Beast.

HAVING shewn in the preceding chapter that the number of the Beast is to be calculated according to some mode of numbering with which men are acquainted, we come now to consider the different modes of computation in use among the ancients, in order to discover, if possible, in what way the Beast's number should be reckoned. It is a well known fact among the learned, that long before the commencement of the Christian æra, the Greeks held numbers in very high veneration. Pythagoras, who lived upwards of five hundred years before the Incarnation, was the first that we read of, who reduced the mystery of numbers into some sort of system; and Plato, who flourished about a century later, put himself to incredible pains in explaining the Pythagorean mysteries with respect to numbers; but in many places Plato himself is very obscure, and in some parts of his works upon this subject his meaning is totally unintelligible, notwithstanding the great endeavours both of ancients and moderns to apprehend it. The Pythagorean and Platonic philosophers held that God, our souls, and

all things in the world, proceeded from numbers; and that from their harmonies, all things were produced.* Cicero says, that the Pythagoreans conceived that all things are the product of numbers and the mathematics. + And in his epistle to Atticus he observes, that the numerical system of Plato is an obscure thing. W. Morell, in his Treatise upon the Origin of the Ancient Philosophers, says that " Pythagoras, the prince of the Italian philosophers, and pupil of Pherecydes, taught, about the 60th Olympiad, that all things consist of numbers, that the monad is the beginning of things; that the dyad is the basis of every thing, from whence spring numbers, points, lines, planes, bodies, &c. &c." § Aristotle | speaks of the opinion of the Pythagoreans in words to the following effect: "These philosophers," says he, 66 seem to imagine that number is the beginning of every

[ocr errors]

* Augustine's City of God, with notes, by L. Vives, Book vi.

c. 5, note d.

+ Pythagorei ex numeris, et Mathematicorum initiis, proficisci volunt omnia. Cic. Acad. Quæst. Lib. iv. c. 37.

Augustine's City of God, by L. Vives, B. vi. c. 5, note d. § Pythagoras, Italicorum philosophorum princeps, auditor Pherecydis, Olymp. LX. docuit: Ex numeris omnia constare; Monadem initium rerum esse; Dyadem rerum esse materiam. Inde numeros nasci, puncta, lineas, plana, corpora, &c. Antiq. Græcar. Tom. X. Col. 337, 338.

[[ Φαίνονται δὲ καὶ οὗτοι τὸν ἀριθμὸν νομίζοντες ἀρχὴν εἶναι τοῦ δὲ ἀριθμοῦ τοιχεῖα τὸ ἄρτιον καὶ τὸ περιττὸν· τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν πεπερασμένον, τὸ δὲ απειρον. Lib. i. c. 5. See also, Iren. Lib. ii. c. 19, p. 142. Edit. 1702, à Grabe.

thing; and that the elements of number are even and uneven, the former of which is infinite, the latter finite." Eustratius, in his first book of Ethics, speaks of the opinion of the Pythagoreans with respect to numbers in very nearly the same words with Aristotle, when he tells us, that " Pythagoras divided numbers into two orders, one of which is finite, or uneven, the other infinite, or even." * Thus we find, from the testimony of several ancient writers, independently of the great work of Plato still extant, that the Greeks imagined numbers to be of the utmost consequence, and to contain the most sublime mysteries, as, in their estimation, there existed not one thing in the whole compass of nature, which had not a reference, directly or indirectly, to some particular number or numbers.

Of all numbers, under which a mystery or mysteries were supposed to be couched, the Pythagoreans appear to have had the greatest predilection for those of three, four, seven, nine, and ten. Of each of these the most extravagant things have been asserted; and though, in favour of these numbers, many curious and, it must be allowed, singularly coincident circumstances have been brought forward; yet it must be granted that the great majority of the observations of the ancients upon not only these, but almost all other numbers which they have deemed mysterious, are ridiculous and absurd.

* Δύο συσοιχίας ὁ Πυθαγόρας ἐξέθετο, μίαν μὲν ταύτην πέρας, περιττὸν ἑτέραν δὲ ταύτην ἄπειρον, ἄρτιον. Iren. Lib. ii. c. 19.

9.

CALIF

Aristotle tells us, that "it was a saying of the Py
thagoreans that the whole and all things are termi-
nated by threes, for,"
say they,
"this number has
the beginning, middle, and end of every thing."*
With respect to this number there are numerous
passages in ancient authors. There were three
Graces, three Fates, three Furies, the Muses were
three times three, the bolt of Jove was trifid, the
sceptre of Neptune was a trident, and the dog of
Pluto had three heads. In this number the Pytha-
goreans also placed perfection, and made great use
of it in their religious ceremonies. Virgil seems to
have copied this sentiment, when he says in his
eighth Eclogue: 1. 73, &c.

Terna tibi hæc primùm triplici diversâ colore
Licia circumdo: terque, hæc altaria circum
Effigiem duco: numero deus impare gaudet.

Necte tribus nodis ternas Amarylli colores:

Necte Amarylli, modo: et Veneris dic vincula necto.

Around this waxen image first I wind

Three woollen fillets of three colours joined;

Thrice bind about his thrice devoted head,

Which round the sacred altar thrice is led.
Unequal numbers please the gods.-

Knit with three knots, the fillets knit them straight;
These knots to Love I consecrate.

And

say,

DRYDEN.

The tetrad or quaternion number was emphatically called the mysterious number of Pythagoras,

* Καθάπερ γὰρ φασὶ καὶ δι Πυθαγόρειοι, τὸ πᾶν, καὶ τὰ πάντα τοῖς τρίσιν ὁριςαὶ· τελευτὴ γὰρ καὶ μέσον καὶ ἀρχὴ τὸν ἀριθμὸν EXEL TOY TOU Tavros.-Aristot, Stagiritæ, De Cœlo, Lib. i. c. 1. ἔχει + Aulus Gellius's Attic Nights, by the Rev. W. Beloe, B. iii.

c. 10.

comprehending, according to him, all perfection, referred by some to the four elements, by others to the cardinal virtues. * "The Pythagoreans, and with them Plato, attached to the number seven the mystery of a great revolution; and that when it had run through all its periods, nothing farther could be added, but the pristine state of things being then changed, a new one would commence." + Plato and others made a subtle distinction betwixt the numbers seven and nine, supposing the former to influence the body, the latter the mind. Particular numbers were also supposed applicable to virtues, as four was called the number of justice, &c. &c. the world was also said by the Pythagoreans to have ten for its number. § The heathen deities had also peculiar numbers assigned them; as one was called the number of the chief god, two that of Pallas, three that of Minerva, four that of Apollo, five that of Isis, six that of Osiris, seven that of Mercury, eight that of Ammon, &c. Hence a grass or flower that has a particular number of leaves clustered together was consecrated to that god to whom the respective number was appropri

66

* Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, by Beloe, B. iii. c. 10. + Pythagorei, et cum illis Plato, in septenario numero mysterium μεταβολῆς μεγάλης ponunt, ut illo per spatia sua confecto, amplius nihil addi possit, sed mutato pristino rerum statu, novus incipiat. Georgius Schubartus de Diluvio Deucalionis, c. 2. Antiq. Græc. Gronov. Tom. X. col. 709.

Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, by Beloe, B. iii. c. 10. § Beverley's Great Line of Prophetical Time, p. 134.

« AnteriorContinuar »